The City of Edinburgh will be the first to host an international promotion event of Rotterdam's innovative cultural policies for enforcing the participation of artists in heightening a city's competitiveness and securing social peace on the local level.

The essay 'Neo-Liberalism with Dutch Characteristics: The Big Fix-Up of the Netherlands and the Practice of Embedded Cultural Activism' is published in the book volume 'Culture and Contestation in the New Century'.

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Resuscitating the architect in a technology-driven discipline - The case of the fragile project

Caroline Newton & Gideon Boie

Sint-Lucas School of Architecture

Keywords: critical architecture, fragile, pedagogical trajectories

Abstract

The start of this academic year at the Sint-Lucas school of architecture also witnessed stance the introduction of a yearly theme: . The yearly theme was not so much embedded in the curriculum of the student as it developed a parascholar trajectoryof events in which the students were invited to take the lead. The program consisted of an international student conference, debates with known architects, a lecture series, quarterly paper, etc. As the dean describes it, fragile is a mental frame, a lense or a way to look at and think about architecture, space and the world we inhabit. As such the department of architecture provides the appropriate framework and means to reflect upon the interaction between people and their environment, to meet the people behind architecture – both users and producers – and learn about their motives and, finally, to develop their own personal challenge in architecture.

In this contribution we are looking deeper into the fragile project of Sint Lucas school of architecture. We will elaborate its meaning as a pedagogical trajectory and define how it can – and is – instigating a renewed critical and socially responsible attitude in the students. And this is perhaps the key task for an architecture school as more than ever our cities are more than built up space and morphological composition. The built environment reflects the strong intertwinement of space, people and time. It is in these lived complex realities that the architect operates today and finds his/her proper role to play. Addressing the playground and role of an architect is thus an essential part of architectural training.

In this regard, it is insufficient to claim complexity and intelligent user centred design as this does not exclude a technocratic take on design and building production. Building on Foucault (1980) and Deleuze (2004 (1988)), we acknowledge that every act we undertake as architects not only directly influences people’s living environments but is also shaping or confirming societal/political discourses. As such we, architects, can no longer take the position as objective administrator of a design brief. The architect has to take on the challenge to think and act in dialogue with not only the users of the spaces designed but also with his public or private commissioners and society as a whole.

The fragile trajectory has stimulated a dynamic atmosphere where students can develop this critical and engaged attitude. In order to present the intriguing character of the fragile project we will in a first (1) part introduce the fragile project and contextualise it within the history and development of the Sint-Lucas schools. Next (2) we will elaborate on fragile as a pedagogical trajectory that supplements the regular educational programs in the school. And in a third section (3) we will connect this with the broader societal relevance as briefly situated above. In a concluding part (4) we will look critically at the path already taken and the future opportunities this approach has to offer.